Latest from Sreesanth: split hat-trick

He’s raring to grab the new ball, run in hard and get started. Sreesanth admits he’s excited about bowling his next delivery in international cricket. So what’s so special about it? “I am on a hat-trick yaar, and I am planning to grab it this time,” he says.

Sreesanth got two wickets with his last two deliveries in the third one-dayer in Hyderabad, but was rested in Chandigarh. “Whenever I get an opportunity again to play, I will be focussed on my aim. “I will bowl my natural ball and that will come in for the right-handers, or I will bowl full, fast and straight first-up,” he says.

Sreesanth has faced the ‘split hat-trick’ chance once before too. “You know last time, I bowled that natural out-swing in Abu Dhabi and left-handed Salman Butt was playing. That delivery just missed the off-stump. Let’s see what’s in store for me with these two left-handers (Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist),” he says.

But irrespective of whether he achieves that distinction, Sreesanth has achieved something important for Team India — of bowling the slower one just as brilliantly and effectively as Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach now, used to do to stem the runs in the slog overs.

Prasad laughs when asked to compare his slow leg-cutters to Sreesanth’s back of the hand leg-spinners. “It’s up to you to tell me who was better at it, but from a bowling coach’s perspective, it’s been a very good change that Sreesanth has brought in. I mean, just the fact that he’s started bowling the slower one like me means I can show the world that I have passed on the tricks to my boys,” he says.

For Sreesanth, “It’s something I learnt in the park. As a kid, I was a leg-spinner na, woh sab kaam aa gaya. Childishness you see,” he adds. Irfan Pathan too has been immaculate with his off-cutters and has deliberately cut out on pace to ensure the ball doesn’t come on well for the batters to hit. Zaheer Khan too has camouflaged his slower deliveries in that pack of yorkers. Slow and steady has now become the mantra for the Indian bowling attack. “You see, on these flat tracks, the bowlers have to change their pace and vary to escape. And the coaching staff has been intent on asking the bowlers to get the slower one in as often as possible,” says Team India’s cricket manager Lalchand Rajput.

Prasad believes too many slower ones won’t have any adverse effect. “It’s just the mindset, keep you mind focused on what you bowl, then everything will come automatically. The straight seam will still come straight even if you bowl 30 slower ones in your spell. Slower one is just a variation, nothing else.”

For Team India, the slower ones has now become a lifeline that has helped them to remain alive in this series against Australia.